The Smurfs 2 set for a summer 2013 release

Surprising box office success leads to an unsurprising sequel

After the unexpected success of The Smurfs (which has grossed more than $242m world-wide since opening), Sony have given the go-ahead to a sequel and slated a release date for August 2013.

The little blue men even outperformed the little green men of Cowboys & Aliens and also bested the Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman body-swap comedy, The Change-Up , at the box office.

Of course then, it’s only natural that the filmmakers are eager to churn out a follow-up title to make sure children drag their parents back for more. It's arriving on 2 August 2013, almost exactly two years after the original, to be precise.

The Smurfs director Raja Gosnell and producer Jordan Kerner apparently started to work on the sequel a couple of months ago, but now it’s been confirmed as a big, blue reality.

Mums and dads everywhere now have only two years to prepare themselves for the next instalment...